S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl
- Development History
An interview with Anton Bolshakov
recently says a lot and not very much. He is willing to surrender
his car to fans if the game doesn't come out in Q1 2007. If
its a crappy old Lada no one will care, and split up between,
well... thousands of followers, this doesn't go too far. So,
predictably no hard date for release.
It seems like, stuff that were
rumours before are now facts, like no driving. I understand
their justifications but find the huge playing area ideal for
vehicles. If you want to drive around like an idiot then yes,
you will find ourself taken out pretty quickly, but it shouldn't
be dropped. Still, things like this, it appears they will still
be "in" the game, and perhaps cheats will allow for
them to surface.
It is a good idea to be able to
play any given game on a lower spec machine, so the DX 8.0 is
a good scheme but, my argument would then be, by the time it
comes out, what about DX 10? So again, the whole idea of perfection
before release is all fine and good but you will always need
a upgrade, patches, a sequel. New technology is always coming
out. By Q1 2007 there might be a few upset people unable to
take full advantage of their latest and greatest gfx cards and
processors. That being said, I'll be happy to know I'd only
need a $1000 machine to get into playing S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
All in all we should be able to
get our hands on more videos and other promotional material
as the pre-release marketing campaign begins. That will include
a MP demo.
If you would like to see the interview
click below;
http://forum.v5g.de/showthread.php?t=5006
It was posted with the original
source and translated by http://www.Oblivion-Lost.de
Top ^
06 July 2006
Video Google, Interviews,
Video Cards... and S.T.A.L.K.E.Rish weather.
2357hrs
Managed to get several new videos down via http://video.google.com
and have the look at these .gvi files once the Google Video
Player was installed. Unfortunately they're all in Russian expect
for another which was in German. Anyone who might know a translation
for the Stalker AI video, the Introduction or "Stalker
running with DirectX 9" into English would be much appreciated.
Perhaps just a thread discussing their content in English, especially
the AI one.
Also got down the old Interview with Oleg (in English) and the
Nvidia guy, Kieth Galocy. Being that the game was still called
STALKER : Oblivion Lost it shows how dated it is. Still, though
there was nothing new in the content there, was nice to see
some new sequences of game action.
The weather here in Wellington, New Zealand (nope not Kansas,
USA), is quote Stalkerish I can tell you. That miserable rain
kinda weather.
http://video.google.com/videosearch?sourceid=gvc&q=S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
http://stalker.igromania.ru
Video Cards
Starting to think about putting together a machine in the coming
months for a gaming platform to run S.T.A.L.K.E.R. one of those
essential components is the video card. For a bottom of the
rung deal to start with, not wishing to invest too much in the
early stages, the Radeon 9600 Pro looks like the deal. Comes
with DVI as a nice bonus... It just seems so unnatural to be
proposing any sort of of Windoz type setup after finally coming
back to MacOS. Still, also its not for another 9 months or more
before this webmaster will seriously start to shake regarding
the desperate need for a PC to run this highly anticipated game.
3 million polygons per frame at 60 frames per second... arrrrrrh.
OC14 with BG15 grennnnade launcher... and suppressor... happiness.
I am supposing that in the months after release it will be time
to invest in a Nvidia GeForce since this is what the boys at
GSC Game World have worked the game around. In the meantime,
in regards value for money and some serious fun, perhaps even
for giving the unofficial 2215 Build a burl, the Radeon will
do the trick just nicely. And quite frankly, the way the game
market is at present, it is the only reason I'll splash out
the cash.
For a beta that is several years
old, unofficial and riddled with bugs. So, that gives some idea
of how long I've been hanging out for this game.
http://www.ascent.co.nz/ProductSpecification.aspx?ItemID=338635
Top ^
01 July 2006
Dean Sharpe Interview, PDAs, Artificial Intelligence... and
realism.
Time Unknown
What follows is an interview with Dean Sharpe at E3 2006, a
developer brought in by THQ to refine the project. Comments
follow.
May 19, 2006, 2:41 am
Heres the article from the Australian gaming magazine Atomic
-
E3 2006: The truth behind STALKER
By Logan Booker | May 18, 2006
Stalker at E3, part 1
E3 was full of surprises, but none quite as engaging - or alluring
- as the behind-closed-doors demo of STALKER: Shadows of Chernobyl.
We've heard the supposed problems at developer GSC Gameworld,
read the financial forecasts from THQ stating the game's release
as 'sometime next year', stories of cut features and even the
(thankfully) quickly squashed rumour that the game had been scrapped.
Some of it is true, some isn't. Obviously, we know now the game
is still on track and that the release will indeed be early next
year. A major development did however occur - around a year ago
THQ brought in freelance developer Dean Sharpe to transform the
game from an undefined mess of potential to a sprawling masterpiece.
Sharpe is now executive producer as well as product manager for
STALKER. It was he who talked us through the action, displayed
on a nice, big LCD and explained a few of the concepts.
The first was a new PDA mechanic, much like Doom 3 or, if you're
old enough to remember, System Shock. PDAs can be found by searching
the bodies of fallen enemies. The PDAs act as journals, and provide
GSC with a great (and apparently now-popular) way to explain the
story.
'You'll find everything about what the person has done, he'll
write things in his diary and you get all that information. That's
how a lot of the story is conveyed,' explained Sharpe. Sharpe
also said that every character in the game has voice however,
the characters we talked to in the demo had temporary voice clips.
Next were the scripted events.
Ducking through the concrete and steel remains of Chernobyl, we
approached another stalker who informed us that his leader, Mole,
had been captured by the Militaries. Sharpe told us it was the
Militaries' job to keep the stalkers out of the exclusion zone
around Chernobyl.
The scripted sequence that followed came as a bit of a shock.
'This is an example of a little bit of how the game has changed
over the year,' said Sharpe. 'You wouldn't have [this] type of
thing in the game before - it was completely open-ended. So now
we've added scripted events to make sure you can actually follow
the story.' We had to ask at this point about STALKER's much publicised
'A-Life' AI system.
'It's still there, but with scripting elements as well that make
sure that you can make it through the game ... It's still very,
very open-ended.
The only difference is that there are now scripted events throughout
the world that will let you progress. But once that scripted event
happens that area then opens up to the entire world again,' explained
Sharpe.
As the demo continued, Sharpe pointed out a few of the game's
features, including visibility and noise status bars on the HUD,
allowing the player to gauge how loud or how visible they are
to enemies. By shooting out lights and walking instead of running,
these conditions improve so you can sneak around and kill enemies
silently.
Also adding to the realism was tinnitus and vision blurring from
explosions - get too close and although you might escape damage,
these impairments could get you killed anyway.
Speaking of getting killed (and being human and all) you can of
course take damage. First you'll have to deal with a 'bleeding'
condition, which comes up as a green, yellow or red - in order
of severity - teardrop-shaped icon on the right of the screen.
You can pick up bandages to remove this condition, and health
packs actually get some health back.
Weapons are also very customisable. We were shown a M16-like weapon
that had a grenade launcher, scope and silencer attached, which
Sharpe explained could be found or bought in the game. And they're
just not for show. We saw grenades fly and the THQ representative
playing the game made ample use of the scope to pick off opponents.
One thing we noticed during a area change was a loading screen.
Sharpe said that not only do these loading screens appear between
areas, but also as you walk about the world. So the game unfortunately
doesn't feature a seamless world as we once believed.
'There aren't levels so to speak, but there are level loads when
you go into areas to bring in new assets,' explained Sharpe.
As we made our way through this new area - a sewer system of sorts
- a Geiger counter made itself very apparent; it's clicking and
beeping warning of impending radiation. As you might expect, if
you're dumb enough to ignore the warnings, you will get radiation
sickness. While iodine and Prussian blue don't make an appearance,
you can drink vodka to cure yourself. 'The scary part is - not
just the guys at GSC [but] people in Ukraine believe that,' said
Sharpe.
The end of the demo came as quite a surprise. As our stalker trudged
through a long, dark tunnel, we were suddenly set upon by a mutant
that took control of our mind. A red head-with-brain-inside icon
appeared on the right of the screen, and that was that.
According to the THQ representative who played through the demo
for us: 'The guy that killed me there was a mutant who takes control
of your mind, sucks you towards him and rips your face off and
throws you back again.' The mutant then proceeded to walk over
and start eating our corpse. Lovely.
So, what has changed in the game? Sharpe was able to enlighten
us.
'There isn't that much that's been cut … I've made some
minor changes. There were some types of mutants that I pulled
out. I took out sleeping and eating - a couple of the minor RPG
elements. I also shortened the amount of dialog in the dialog
trees - there [was a lot] of back and forth that wasn't needed.'
What was most surprising however was Sharpe revealing that 'I
may or may not take out the vehicles - I haven't decided yet'.
Vehicles were a big part of the game's original feature-set. If
they were to be removed it would pose more than a few design problems,
considering the size of the 30-square kilometre area covered in
the game.
Finally, we asked about the engine. When STALKER started development,
DirectX 8 was all the rage. GSC hasn't been idle and there's now
DX 9 capability. 'The DX 9 renderer is up. That has been put in
over the last year,' said Sharpe.
We left the demo confident that the game is finally on track.
Here's hoping for a Duke Nukem Forever closed-door session next
E3.
Comments
I hope that the PDA system is intuitive and original, otherwise
we simply have more cloning going on. But it will be a good
way to record character history and to manipulate actions.
There are a few concerning things here, not least of which is
the AL. So long as the scripted elements are for controlling
the storyline, fine. If it puts the whole thing on rails, not
good. If the AL we have come to expect is scarce, then this
will simply become another HL2 or Doom3. It won't be any different,
asides the setting. We didn't wait over 3 years for that. I
didn't find the HL2 opponents either intelligent in their actions
or challenging in combat. Scripting is ridiculous this far down
the track.
Personally I'm up for as tactically realistic game as possible
so the visibility and noise elements are wholly welcome. There
will be no shouts of "camper!" when a sniper puts
to good use his talents with that VSS and PSO-1. It has to be
an intelligent game, otherwise I might as well just go off and
play Doom3. Being shot hurts, and you best avoid it. No 100%
health meaning you can take several bursts from a mini gun.
Nope, its pink mist time, if the tr729.mpg file is anything
to go by. One has to be very thankful for realistic, real world,
true-to-life customisable weapons, but we knew this would be
part of the game anyway. Nothing new there, but eagerly awaited
nonetheless.
Too many loads is going to be a drag. No one wants this. It
can really put the dampener on an otherwise brilliant game.
I seriously hope GSC are looking into reducing this. If a game
loses its flow then the player (who often isn't the most patient
person in the world) may even abandon it for something that
doesn't stall. Remember, in Q1 2007, there will be new competition
out there and you can't have such a thing ruining an otherwise
great game. HL2 and Doom3 have had their day. CGC / THQ have
to concern themselves with elements like this to take on the
new challengers. They can't simply rate themselves against the
aforementioned.
If the vehicles are taken out then we have a problem with getting
around such a vast area. They've already ditched the state of
repair elements which is more than a bit of a shame. This means
that if vehicles do remain, there will be no new features of
gameplay which differentiate it with the likes of HL2. There
will be no negatives for having mobility.
At the end of the day, if too many of the RPG elements are stripped
away, the game will loose much of the potential that was to
make it different from other FPS games. The Dealer, trading
all make it a more believable world, interactive. I most certainly
don't want another "shoot 'em up".
There are at least six another months before S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
: Shadow of Chernobyl is released. We can only hope that it
indeed is a game somewhat close to the sort of product we have
been waiting so long for. To be truly unique in any design field
one must come outside the norm, take risks, get outside their
comfort zone. GSC Game World have shown us they can do it -
I just hope they don't head back in...
You can see some attempted rumor busting at the following URL,
though, you know what they say about the fat lady singing...
Rumour
Busting...
Top ^
28 June 2006
Short Story Update, PSO-1
Range Finder, Chevrons... and two-way rifle ranges.
0813hrs
Short Story Update
Okay, after reviving some of my
enthusiasm for the upcoming release, I have had the short story
back out on the desktop. With that some ideas on detail where
I'll go into the use of the PSO-1 scope's rangefinder and reticle.
This has come from some ideas on ballistics that may or may
not show up in the final game. It would be nice, in theory to
have a system where realistic trajectories could be mapped,
turned on or turned off (arcade mode). This would be a bonus
for those who like combat simulation likes of Ghost Recon
and those of the traditional arcade persuasion.
The PSO-1 Range Finder
Trust the Russians to come up with
something very simple yet effective. How it works is, you estimate
your range by lining up the horizontal line on the left range
marker with the feet of of your target (standing) and it gives
you their approximate range in metres from the vertical curvature.
If they are prone or crouched there is a bit of guestimation.
Imagine them standing if prone, double it if they're kneeling.
Each chevron is equal to 250m, so you use your rangefinder data
and transfer that. For a target at 250m or closer you use the
top-most chevron, for 500m the second and so on... For points
of distance in between simply cast your aim between the two
relevant chevrons.
Have fun hitting the mark. Remember, you're on a two-way rifle
range so its not going to be easy.
Top ^
27 June 2006
1st Quarter 2007 Release,
Build 2215, A-Life... and backwards compatibility.
0932hrs
Q1 2007 Release Date
After the best part of a year we are back. Things seem to be
making real progress again after very little has been heard
in real terms of seeing this game reach its fans. The last thing
we need is news of another delay, but now it is official. S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
: Shadow of Chernobyl is a Q1 2007 release date.
Build 2215 MP Beta
This 2004 unofficial and leaked multiplayer beta is rumoured
to be about. Giving a bit of taste as to what to expect is about
as far as it will go - the fans have been itching for something
like this and perhaps it suggests that GSC Game World needed
to get something out there, a demo or whatever, to satisfy the
supporters out there - something to keep them happy until shipping.
It doesn't appear that will be the case. So you end up with
releases like this.
At the end of the day though, it will be the A-Life which sets
this game apart. The graphics will be great to look at generating
awesome effects, but it is the world that differentiate it from
others. How do the NPCs behave, the creatures, within the world?
We won't get this in a MP beta.
Being over 2 years old, this beta won't be anything like the
final product visually but might give some idea on how the game
might play in this mode on a LAN via older generation machines.
Using DX8 and lacking the real resource hungry effects the focus
on 2215 will simply be playability. And a demonstration of backwards
compatibility drawing as many people into the game as possible.
It would be nice to think you could join in on a game of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
without the need for the latest and greatest machine. A P3 600
with a mediocre 128Mb video card might even do it.
Developers Diary
Just to get up to speed there are a few things worth reading
out there.
Interview with Oleg Yavorsky
http://www.firingsquad.com/games/stalker_interview/
You can find a video interview with Oleg at the following URL,
detailing a game overview;
http://pdl.stream.aol.com/aol/us/aolgames/gamespot/action/stalkers/stalkers_pc31403_vi1_qt_dl.mov
Designer Diary #4
http://videogames.aol.com/videogame/stalker-shadow-of-chernobyl/762/game-previews?articleID=208905
Top ^
17 May 2006
Bodies, Weapons, Designer Diaries... and Shadow of Chernobyl
Q&A
This is particularly interesting,
and is one example where we can only hope that the promises
produce results in the final product, but it is hard to expect.
"We've paid special attention
to body physics, as well. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. has an advanced skeletal
animation system that controls realistic body movements at a very
high level of detail. Each human character in the game contains
about 50 bones, all of which can be adjusted--right down to the
pinky finger. Our engine defines human movement based on the maximum
tensile strength of bones, joint stiffness, and weight, among
other factors. All of this contributes to the way in which a body
will react when it is falling or being shot. Watch for the way
bullets will even leave trace holes in the bodies. Given this
level of detail, we felt we would be remiss not to tie this in
to the gameplay. For instance, if you're severely injured, you'll
move more slowly. Hand injuries will cause tremors and difficulties
when aiming; leg injuries will cause you to limp. It's a liberating
experience to utilize physics in this way. We have even set the
game so that different types of clothing and weaponry affect the
way you'll be affected by gunfire or other factors.
"We have, for obvious reasons, given similar attention to
the game's weapons--we're modeling the game's weapons after their
real-world counterparts to enhance gameplay, so they don't feel
like merely new skins. For example, we have modeled the approximate
range of each weapon, but this is only the beginning of what the
physics engine has allowed us to do. Some weapons will have greater
penetration ability, while others will have modeled scatter ranges
for burst shots. And virtually any type of weapon can be modified
with laser sights, muzzles, or grenade launchers. Realism further
dictates that weapons have limited life spans, misfire tendencies,
and so on, so you'll often find that when visiting the game's
illicit merchants to equip yourself, you'll get what you pay for.
Add to this the inclusion of a fine assortment of bladed weapons,
and it will be a long time before you get to see the full range
of impact types a body can take."
